Ziarnik, School & Public Libraries, Ch.1

From School and Public Libraries: Developing the Natural Alliance by Natalie Reif Ziarnik. Copyright 2003 by the American Library Association. All rights reserved. Permission granted to reproduce for nonprofit, educational purposes. Check out the book at the ALA Online Store (www.alastore.ala.org). An Abbreviated 1 History THE PROGRESSIVE ERA (1890 TO 1920) Whether you identify yourself as a public librarian, school teacher, teacher- librarian, school librarian, media specialist, or information specialist, the roots of your profession became strongly established between 1890 and 1920, a time known as the Progressive Era. The fields of education and librarianship, as well as the sister fields of nursing and social work, developed their core values and professional standards during this period of great social progress in the United States. Members of these social welfare professions felt compelled to take action against the deplorable living conditions in American cities brought on by the economic depression of 1893. At the end of the nineteenth century, many people moved to cities. Rapid industrialization had created new factory and office jobs in the city for those who had lived in rural areas as well as for tens of thousands of recent immigrants. These new city inhabi- tants had to adjust to a different way of life. The working class was rou- tinely subjected to dangerous working conditions and resided in unsanitary tenement buildings. Masses of children were uneducated and illiterate. Communicable diseases spread rampantly because the general population had no knowledge of basic germ theory and the importance of cleanliness. Those living in rural America had their own set of problems: the lack of 1 2 An Abbreviated History good roads and postal service to these areas inhibited access to essential materials, including books and newspapers. The middle class, especially educated middle-class women, were shocked at how miserable people’s lives were and aimed to improve conditions through social reform and through their participation in the welfare professions—social work, teaching, librarianship, and nursing. The women entering and defining these professions were still strongly influenced by the Victorian ideology of the domestic “angel of the house” in which women stayed within the safe confines of home and shared their “superior moral insight” with their families. As the Victorian period began to wane, many women, especially those who did not marry, left their domestic, private spheres for a more public life, organizing with others in a zealous effort to improve society: No longer confined to the private sphere, they now used their legendary powers of moral suasion and their social consciences in the public domain. Breathing the hope and optimism of the age, confident in their own abil- ities, they marched into the first two decades of the twentieth century. (Schneider 1993) In defining the helping professions and establishing professional asso- ciations and standards, these women pioneers fought against the notion that women were too weak or delicate to work outside the home. Yet, at the same time, they channeled their energy into areas often associated with their gender—educating, healing, and making a safe home for others. More and more middle-class women were graduating from college, where they were encouraged to contribute to society through work. In addition, since these women were usually unmarried, all of the love they would have directed toward a family was devoted to their work, which they saw as “social housekeeping.” All American teachers and librarians—whether male or female—share this common history and, as a consequence, common values that are just as strong today as they were one hundred years ago. The history of professions during the Progressive Era shows us how much public librarians, teachers, and school librarians (the latter being a combination of the two earlier established professions) have in common: all hoped and believed they could improve society through hard work, organization, and the education of the young. The can-do spirit of the Progressive Era naturally flourished in the fields of education and librarianship; less obviously, however, this same An Abbreviated History 3 spirit transformed the world of book publishing. As with the professions being in part a response to deplorable living and working conditions, the trends in publishing children’s books responded to mass-market literature of poor literary and moral quality. Instead of criticizing and forbidding the reading of this literature, children’s librarians and editors and writers of children’s books took a more positive approach: they created excellent literature and encouraged young people to read it. The critic Anne Lundin (1996) claims that the weaving together of the fields of education, librarianship, and publishing created a “peculiar synergy” that transformed the types of services and literature offered to children. Beginning in 1900, teachers and, especially, children’s librarians exerted their influence on the publication of quality children’s literature, creating what later became known as the Golden Age in American Children’s Literature (1900 to 1950). Children’s books modeled values “espoused by educated middle-class women . cooperation, friendship, acceptance, and tolerance on a personal, community, and international level” (Jenkins 1996). To promote the creation of books with these values, as well as with high literary quality and child appeal, children’s librarians communicated their needs to writers and publishers and were often instru- mental in the success and failure of juvenile titles. Beginning in the Progressive Era and extending further into the twentieth century, librarians, teachers, writers, and publishers worked together to create and define excellent books and services for young people. The Golden Age of Children’s Literature, initiated during this optimistic period, was one of the most significant products of this peculiar synergy. As we look back in history, there are other great moments of cooperation, par- ticularly when the fields of education and librarianship join forces, either consciously or unconsciously. Our history was also influenced by people with strong personalities working in different environments, developing their own philosophies about library service and education for young people and spreading their influence by training future professionals. TRACING THE STORY OF PUBLIC LIBRARY–SCHOOL RELATIONS This section presents an overview of the contributions of the individuals who played major roles in the history of school–public library relations: Anne Carroll Moore, John Cotton Dana, Lutie Stearns, Mary Hall, Lucy 4 An Abbreviated History Sprague Mitchell, Margaret Wise Brown, Margaret Batchelder, and Frances Henne. By looking back at the professional lives of these individuals, one can see that the missions of schools and libraries definitely overlapped. There were times of great cooperation and joining of forces followed by times of separation and specialization again followed by times of renewed cooperation. This fluctuation can be seen as a natural process as times change and professions continually redefine themselves to meet new chal- lenges. The pioneers of these professions tended to have strong opinions and greatly influenced the policies of the institutions in which they worked. The Early Influences of Anne Carroll Moore (1900 to 1918) Anne Carroll Moore, one of the foremothers of children’s librarianship, worked in the midst of the peculiar synergy described earlier, using the strength of her powerful personality and convictions to define children’s public library services and to set the standards for quality literature for young people. Moore was trained as a librarian at Pratt Institute and then began her career as a children’s librarian at the Pratt Children’s Library in Brooklyn, New York. The Pratt Institute was an institution of higher education for future librarians and artists as well as for those planning to enter a wide variety of vocational work. In her job at the library, Moore worked first and foremost to establish the area as a pleasant, hospitable place that children would want to visit voluntarily. Even though Moore viewed the work of a children’s librarian as rooted in both education and social work, she insisted that the neighborhood library not resemble a school. This focus influenced her initial philosophy of school service. Moore (1902) was not prepared to send books to the schools or to supply “school duplicates.” Instead, she wished to encourage the teachers and children to visit the neighborhood library, where librarians would “give them every possible means of assistance in connection with their school work as well as in their general reading.” To persuade teachers and their students to visit the library, Moore and her staff began a series of visits to the local Brooklyn public schools. The purpose of these visits was to publicize the library, to become familiar with the schools’ environments, and to learn more about the reading ability of children in certain grades. Moore, who was not a big fan of schools in general, related incidents from these early difficult visits in her article “Visits to An Abbreviated History 5 Public Schools,” published in Library Journal in April 1902: letters sent to principals received little notice, the librarian was rushed through a speedy tour of the school and was not allowed to speak to the classes, and public library activities of interest to school children were rarely promoted. Today one might wonder why Anne Carroll Moore had so many problems. Were the principal and teachers too busy to pay attention to the librarian? Was Moore’s personality too assertive? Were the environments and culture of the public library and the schools too different from each other? Or had school curricula taken a step backwards, with no room for pleasure reading? With experience, Moore and her staff developed a better awareness of schools’ missions and curricula as well as an appreciation of the activities occurring during a typical school day.

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